The Rampage Extract: George Edmundson

The April edition of The Rampage is set for release on Thursday 8th April.

The bumper 100-page monthly magazine is again packed full of exclusive interviews and club-centric content.

This month, First Team Development Coach Justin Walker discusses his rise from the Rams’ Academy to the first team coaching staff as well as his playing days which included two years at the FA School of Excellence at Lilleshall.

RamsTV presenter Owen Bradley takes a look into another Derby County dimension, looking back at significant moments in the club’s history and asking ‘what if’ they happened differently. We pay tribute to former player Micky Lewis and former Academy player Matty Langton, who both sadly lost their life last month as well as hear from former player Trevor Christie.

On-loan Rangers defender George Edmundson sat down for an in-depth interview looking back over his career that almost didn’t happen as he faced rejection as a young player before breaking through at Oldham Athletic.

Here is an extract from the seven-page interview with the defender that you can read exclusively in The Rampage:

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A start was all it was, however. The first rung on the ladder, so to say. But he had given himself an opportunity to flourish and test himself. Alongside training every day, the Oldham Athletic Academy instilled a set of values into each player that came through the system. Edmundson was one of those players. He, along with the rest of the scholars, had chores to complete and jobs to do before they were able to go home each day. It was a good grounding for the defender.

“Oldham was quite old-school,” Edmundson remembered. “We had to clean the changing rooms and clean players’ boots regularly. I had to clean the gym, brush it and mop it. I also had to clean the physio room and changing rooms every day so it was tough, but it made me take nothing for granted. I used to clean Danny Philliskirk and Korey Smith’s boots. I used to do Lee Johnson’s as well. He was the manager at the time.

“At Christmas, you used to get a bonus for doing their boots throughout the season. Danny Philliskirk gave me about £100, Korey Smith gave me £150 and then I went into the manager’s office to get his boots and he said: ‘two minutes, here is your money’. I was buzzing thinking that he was the gaffer and that he would give me a decent whack. He gave me £30 and said: ‘I’ll give you another tenner tomorrow’. I am still waiting for that tenner to this day! I didn’t dare chase him for it, either!”

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